CHI Health Good Samaritan donating to children in need

KEARNEY, Neb. (KSNB) - CHI Health Good Samaritan is donating gifts to children in need overseas through Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child.

The Program has been giving back to children overseas since 1990. During the program, volunteers will get a standard-sized shoe box that they’ll get to fill with gifts for either a boy or a girl. Then, the volunteers donate $10 to cover the cost of shipping and other projects and finally the boxes are blessed, then sent to the children overseas in time for Christmas.

CHI Good Samaritan’s Chaplain Adie Johnson said the program is important to the hospital because it helps brighten the day of kids going through unstable times.

”They don’t receive things like that over there and are in situations of such suffering that to have a bright spot like this in their year is wonderful,” Johnson said.

The hospital has gotten all of their gifts and are now blessing the gifts before they send them overseas.

Johnson said giving back to people in need is special for the CHI Health Good Samaritan because it’s something the founders of the hospital took very seriously.

”The sisters that founded the hospital, it was so important to them to give back to the community. This is so beyond anything they could have ever dreamed of for it to go international,” Johnson said.

For Johnson, she’s been a part of giving back through Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child and she said the feeling of giving back has a personal connection with her.

“What I love about it is that it’s very tangible, it’s very practical. I have grandkids and it speaks to my own heart and what it’s like on my own family, so it makes a strong connection with folks far away,” Johnson said.

To learn how to pack a shoebox and other details about drop off locations in your area, you can check out the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child Website.

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